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In the first paragraph of the History section, you state: ‘but one Egyptian tomb inscription calls it "aseb”.’ It would be useful to know your source for this or more importantly, which tomb has this inscription so that one could follow up and look at the scholarship and images of that tomb and that inscription.

James Moskin - 21:57, 28/12/2023 - The Game of Twenty Squares

I have a game a friend sent to me from his walk across china and I don’t know the name of the game or how to play it. It is a round brass plate with diagonal lines on it and has four tigers and a large number of dragon figures.

William McDaniel - 23:36, 09/12/2023 - Games of Asia

I've only spent one evening searching but there seems to be little info on this game for some reason. It seems interesting enough to warrant at least a little bit of interest. I'll have to build one and play to see if it warrants making copies for the grandkids.

CJ - 05:09, 03/12/2023 - The Amusing Game of Kilkenny Cats

Can a goose go backward?

TW - 17:43, 07/11/2023 - Fox & Geese

I’m wondering if it’s possible to create a much bigger board with the logical number of men/counters to play an EPIC match (like many have done with Go boards). The standard Nine Men’s Morris board has 24 intersections and there are a total of 18 pieces (nine for each side). What if (and I’m spitballing here) you tripled the size of the board - it stands to reason that you would end up with 72 intersections and would required 66 men/pieces (thirty-three for each side). Would this work? Does it add up correctly?

A.J. - 08:24, 02/11/2023 - Eleven Men's Morris

Hi Damian. I’ve enjoyed each of your books and a number of these leaflets, and hope that you’ll continue to write about games. Your criteria (non-modern, non-proprietary games not involving cards) chimes very closely with my own preferences, too. I often wonder, however, why my favourite game gets so little love and attention, and would like to suggest it for a future leaflet. It’s called Conspirators (or Conspirateurs on the BoardGameGeek). I suspect it’s because it was missing from the great board game catalogues of the past, such as those by Murray, Bell, and Parlett. However, Bell does include it in his smaller “Discovering Old Board Games”. Years ago I wrote a “rules leaflet” of my own, based on Bell and L’Hôte, and more recently Nestor Games produced one to accompany his edition of this game, with only minor differences to the ruleset. If you’re unfamiliar with this game, which has some similarities to (but - in my opinion - is far superior to) Halma, please give it a try. Thank you for all your work in bringing these games to a wider audience. Steve Parsons

Steve Parsons - 09:05, 30/04/2023 - Traditional Board Games Leaflets

Are you also aware of the short piece on agon (pp. 275-78) in The Sociable, or One Thousand and One Home Amusements, Dick & Fitzgerald, Pubs., 1858. I have a rather battered copy of this scarce book, which, however, is available in a reprint edition. The text includes detailed rules for playing the game, as well as a survey of helpful tactics toward winning. Also, in this month's Quarterly publication of the Association for Games & Puzzles International is a three-page history of the game, with wonderful color photos of nine old commercial editions going back to the mid 1800s.

Wayne Saunders - 23:55, 06/04/2023 - Agon

If I may be so free, Janneke: in my experience, google translate tends to give flawed translations, as it often gives phonetic translations based on sound rather than meaning of the words. I would recommmend mijnwoordenboek.nl for proper translations from German, French and English into Dutch.

Arno - 12:41, 12/03/2023 - Ludus Latrunculorum

There are 2⁴ = sixteen (not eighteen) possible combinations of 4 binary dice. If we value one of the dies outcomes zero and the other one, then the probability of getting a sum of zero is 1/16 [0,0,0,0] one 4/16 [e.g 1,0,0,0] two 6/16 [e.g 1,1,0,0] three 4/16 [e.g 1,1,1,0] four 1/16 [1,1,1,1]

Gregor David Shapiro - 05:24, 15/12/2022 - Royal Game of Ur

Shadyantra was invented in India and Shri Lanka because Shri Lanka was part of india 8800 yrs back. Initially it was named as Dhyut by Sage Agasthya. Shadyantra is device and played as per Shadgunya. It is based on 10x10 board called Dashpaad. Chaturanga was evolved from Shadyantra in 200 BC after it was latter was banned. And yes Chaturanga was played on 8x8 board..

Kautilya - 16:47, 17/11/2022 - Chaturanga

The board that you have shared in called Ashtpaad. (1) Do you know what these Crosses in squares signify??? You have incorrect explaination of ashtpaad(8x8). Chaturanga was incomplete game invented after Emperor Ashok Period. The oldest game was played on Dashpaas(10x10) board and was called Shadyantra.

Kautilya - 15:21, 11/10/2022 - Chaturanga

I played with my mum many years ago when I was young in the 1950. I have the board but have lost the cones and have want to replace it . I really didn’t think I would ever think I would be able to get another one.Im so pleased I will be able to buy this game halma

Mrs Eileen Veans - 23:56, 05/10/2022 - Halma